Hume hopes PBS project leads to an 'oasis for the citizen'
Originally published in Current, June 8, 1998
By Karen Everhart Bedford
Ellen Hume departs her post as PBS's de facto journalist-in-residence on June 15, leaving several kettles in the fire for the Democracy Project she has headed since 1996.
Plans are moving forward for Debate Night '98, what she hopes will be a legacy from her two-year stint at PBS. A documentary on political advertising--the national component of an "adwatch" project developed early this year at a producers' workshop--is in production by the Wisconsin Collaborative.
And--through a potential online partnership with the National Journal that's now under discussion--PBS Online may expand on these election-year specials, offering TV viewers a "much deeper set of resources" to learn about the candidates, issues and political ads of the fall congressional elections. She hopes the online partnership will create a model for "resource journalism," similar to the extensive electronic content Frontline has pioneered on its web site.
On June 14, Hume will lead a session at the PBS Annual Meeting that focuses on local components of PBS's national offerings for the fall election season. She'll also appear at a general session previewing the fall season. The next day, she starts "ambassador school," learning the language of diplomats as she prepares to "partner" with her husband, U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic John Shattuck, in the world of diplomacy. While overseas, Hume will focus her attentions on the role of journalism in an emerging democracy.
Hume spent her last weeks at PBS trying to secure funding for local station-produced debates, as well as a proposed newsmagazine series, now a "very active project in development." She said it was unlikely that a funder would step forward before she leaves PBS.
The idea for an risk-taking newsmagazine came up in a "summit" of public affairs producers that Hume convened last year and got a trial run last summer with Follow the Money, a Democracy Project series that was designed specifically to take creative risks while covering last summer's campaign finance hearings in Congress. Hume said over the last six months she's used the lessons learned from Follow the Money to revise the concept and move it forward.
"The key lesson is that if you have a show, you have to promote it," said Hume. Follow the Money had been financed on a shoestring, without a promotion budget. She also found that show was not as innovative as many would have liked.
The new program now under discussion, details of which may be unveiled this summer, will be nothing like the newsmags on commercial TV "or we will have failed," Hume said. "It has to be something totally different."
Mandate to innovate
A former political reporter for the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal and a scholar of journalism, Hume brought impressive credentials and expertise on the role of media in politics to PBS's Democracy Project, which President Ervin Duggan established shortly after his arrival at Braddock Place in 1994.
Originally, the project was to create new and innovative election-year programs, but by the time Hume arrived in February 1996, most of PBS's campaign specials had already been planned. Her role and the project's broadened to develop innovative public affairs programs generally.
Hume did develop a hallmark special in time for the 1996 election--Debates Night, which paired a live debate between congressional leaders with station-produced face-offs between local candidates. The event received major backing from CPB, with which Hume provided pass-through grants for stations' local debates. Some 70 stations sponsored candidate debates, and the national face-off, produced by Dan Werner of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and moderated by Jim Lehrer, drew major press attention.
Hume also led PBS's 1996 experiment with "free time" for presidential candidates, which was based largely on proposals of the Free TV for Straight Talk Coalition, a group of former journalists and politicians who pushed all the networks to offer free time to presidential candidates. Only PBS went for the proposal, but few viewers tuned in to hear directly from the candidates. Hume has acknowledged that PBS needs to reexamine its approach for the 2000 campaign.
Overall, her efforts were received enthusiastically by public affairs producers and others with a special interest in the genre, but the response from programmers was often lukewarm. "Public TV stations have mixed views about the Democracy Project and news and public affairs," acknowledged Hume. "They're frustrated because it doesn't bring in large audiences like Nova, Nature, or the Antiques Road Show." News and public affairs shows will "never have that role," even though she's made it a "huge priority" to try and expand the audience.
News programs "require someone to come to a broadcast without the idea of being entertained--more active viewer," she said.
"It's really important for public broadcasting to offer that oasis for the citizen because it's incredibly hard for them to find it anywhere else."
Later news: Forty or more public TV stations produce local debates for 1998 elections.
Web page created Nov. 11, 1998
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